How I Write My Books
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Husband Number Five
Emily Adrian
‘I’ve been cruel to my mother all my life. Relentlessly hitting on her new boyfriend was barely remarkable.’
Fiction by Emily Adrian.
Loopholes
Tice Cin
‘If you’re raised without these codes, if you’re not from ends, you won’t find the routes and you won’t find us.’
Tice Cin on class, housing estates and hood surrealism.
Oxblood
Tom Benn
‘Some nights he hurt her which made her glad; she never let him know because the pain was brief and rare and felt like penance.’
An extract from Oxblood by Tom Benn.
Two Poems
Eva Salzman
‘I might as well have not said or done what I said I said or did.’
Poetry by Eva Salzman.
Nothing Special
Nicole Flattery
‘There was very little I could do in life except get dressed, smoke the correct cigarettes.’
An extract from Nothing Special by Nicole Flattery.
On Washing Up and Hoverflies
Beatrice Searle
‘It may be the satisfaction of full hands that brings forth the full feeling essential for words.’
Beatrice Searle on stonemasonry.
Blue Hunger
Viola Di Grado
‘All I wanted was to look at Xu and be looked at by Xu. Be touched by Xu. Be commanded by Xu.’
An extract from Blue Hunger by Viola Di Grado, translated by Jamie Richards.
On Beyoncé
Okechukwu Nzelu
‘Renaissance gives back, by reminding Black queer people what it’s like to be in our most sacred spaces.’
Okechukwu Nzelu on Beyoncé.
Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies
Maddie Mortimer
‘This one – it’s a bit of a beast, he said.’
An extract from Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer. Shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award 2022.
Eclogue of the ‘Big Garden’
John Kinsella
‘I will go elsewhere / and remember, recall where / I came from’
A poem by John Kinsella.
Reproducing Paul
Des Fitzgerald
‘Having a child, I came to see, was more a kind of haunting.’
An essay by Des Fitzgerald.
For the Love of Losing
Marina Benjamin
‘Winning, it turns out, was the cracking whip that meant gamblers had to stay where they were until they lost their money all over again.’
Marina Benjamin on losing.
Hôtel Casanova
Annie Ernaux
‘I never asked myself if I loved P. But nothing could have kept me from going to make love with him at the Hôtel Casanova.’
Memoir by Annie Ernaux, translated by Alison L. Strayer.
Misfortune
André Alexis
‘How many children had accidentally – or purposely, for that matter – shot a parent? Too many to count, no doubt.’
Fiction by André Alexis.
This Is as Far as We Come
Carlos Fonseca
‘Those men and women don’t want rubber. They are after something more ethereal but fearsome: the conversion of souls.’
Fiction by Carlos Fonseca, translated by Megan McDowell.
What It Promised
Cian Oba-Smith & Gary Younge
‘As the economy declined African Americans became a larger part of a shrinking and impoverished city.’
Gary Younge introduces the photography of Cian Oba-Smith.
Many Words for Heat, Many Words for Hate
Amitava Kumar
‘In Delhi the heat is chemical, something unworldly, a dry bandage or heating pad wrapped around the body.’
Memoir by Amitava Kumar.
Biography of X
Catherine Lacey
‘Grief has a warring logic; it always wants something impossible, something worse and something better.’
An extract from Biography of X by Catherine Lacey.
Ecstatic Joy and Its Variants
Peter Gizzi
‘surely this is about water jetting from a spring, / a languid rafting with no particular destination’
Poetry by Peter Gizzi.
The Public and Private Performance of the Deaf Body
Raymond Antrobus
‘There was always cynicism about Ray being a deaf novelty act.’
Raymond Antrobus on performance, Deafness and Johnnie Ray.
Long, Too Long America
Aaron Schuman & Sigrid Rausing
‘The conundrum of America: on the one hand, violence and repression; on the other, freedom and social justice.’
Sigrid Rausing introduces photography by Aaron Schuman.
The Schedule of Loss
Emily LaBarge
‘The Schedule of Loss is what can be heard, what can be tolerated, what can be borne by both teller and told.’
Memoir by Emily LaBarge.
To That Silence, I Told Everything
Xiao Yue Shan
‘To survive, difference was something that had to be mastered.’
Xiao Yue Shan on migration, absence and discovering a library at the end of the world.
The Antigua Journals (What Is a Homeland)
Chanelle Benz
‘I am used to not belonging; it is, you could say, my brand.’
Chanelle Benz on reuniting with her father in Antigua.
The Golden Record
Caspar Henderson
‘The two copies of the Golden Record were shot into space nearly fifty years ago.’
Caspar Henderson on music sent into space by NASA.
Ordinary People
Richard Eyre
‘Is it courage? Is it stoicism? Is it wilful lack of imagination?’
Richard Eyre on family histories and what it means to be ordinary.
A Light Bird
Maylis de Kerangal
‘Her voice survived her, in recorded form, indestructible, in the form of a light bird.’
Fiction by Maylis de Kerangal, translated by Jessica Moore.
City by the Sea
Kalpesh Lathigra & Max Ferguson
‘The homogeneity of cities is a form of madness, but it’s also comfortable because it’s a recognisable madness.’
Kalpesh Lathigra on Mumbai, artistic perspective and moving away from neutrality.
The Last Place We Were Happy
TaraShea Nesbit
‘Our daughter had been born one month early, unbreathing. My husband and I drove to the last place we were happy.’
Memoir by TaraShea Nesbit.
Through the Smoke, Through the Veil, Through the Wind
Roger Reeves
‘In the middle of disaster, we made the unimaginable – joy.’
Roger Reeves on loss, memory and the legacy of slavery.
In Conversation
Constance Debré & Chris Kraus
‘It was a bit like Saint Augustine and his conversion.’
Constance Debré and Chris Kraus on queer identity, casual sex and the politics of refusal.
Owlish
Dorothy Tse
‘Here one minute, gone the next.’
